Thoughts from the Road – UCLA Game

Greetings from beautiful sunny California. My vacation finds me in San Diego this evening with some reliable internet access for the first time in a couple of days so I figured I’d post some of my comments from the UCLA game. All of these come from section 26 of the Rose Bowl where I took in Saturday’s victory.

Offense:

It’s really tough to judge the offensive line from the end zone, but I thought the line played well at times, but as all season, they just weren’t consistent and when we needed to run the ball, we couldn’t.

UCLA was very prepared for Golden Tate and had safety help every time he went deep – which was most of the time he was in the game. Until Tate gets worked into the offense more and more, defenses will be ready for him.

Weis’s gameplan called for a lot of passing out of 3 TE/1 WR sets. This didn’t give Clausen too many targets and as a result, the downfield passing game was non existent. Clausen completed 17 out of 27 passes for just 84 yards because there weren’t many receivers open downfield as they were last week.

Clausen was OK, but missed some open receivers. On the few occasions when Clausen had some receivers open he either missed them or they dropped the ball (Carlson’s drop on 2nd and goal in the first half).

Defense

Anyone who tailgated with me Saturday knows that I talked a lot of junk on Maurice Crum prior to kickoff and man did he shut me up in a hurry with that performance.

Brian Smith and Kerry Neal continue to reinforce the need for them to see more and more playing time. Both are the best pure pass rushers on the team right now.

It was very nice to see a consistent pass rush from a Notre Dame defense. It was also nice to see more balls being batted down at the line of scrimmage.

Trevor Laws should be an All American – plain and simple.

UCLA may have been down to their 3rd string QB, but any time you force seven turnovers, you are doing something right.

Special Teams

How great was it seeing Brandon Walker nail that 48 yard field goal? By the way, the ball bounced did not bounce off the crossbar, but rather on the poll.

Sorry, have to cut this short, my flight to Chicago takes off in seven hours and I need some sleep. I’ll try to add more tomorrow.

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7 comments

frank,
1. we are happy that you enjoyed the rose bowl last on 10/6/2007 and our city of the angels and dan diego.
2. as always, your game analysis is right on.
3. however, did you not feel the confidence of these notre dame players and pick up on the team chemistry finally gelling?
4. we were there also and we felt some real notre dame magic.
5. we will find out for sure against boston college. however, these courageous notre dame players have learned how to play as one.
6. sure, we did not see what the offense could do yet since it would have been stupid to give boston college a preview of what they are going to be seeing when the d was winning the game.
7. however, we did not imagine the magic at the rose bowl with so many notre dame fans showing up so far from south bend, the 0-5 start be damned.
8. and, not to take anything away from stanford, but we also are still picking up the panic that has been spreading over at usc, both before and after the stanford game.
9. the walls of the bush/carroll/usc gate coverup have come tumbling down. it is not only the ncaa asking qusetions, but the fbi, and the rattlesnakes over at usc are starting to bite one.
another.
10. we will take some of the credit for that panic over at usc and it could not happen to a more deserving bunch.
11. there comes a time in the development of team chemistry when talented individuals learn to play as one. that is what we saw happen at the rose bowl forged from the fires of those 5 ugly losses when any other team and their fans would have given up.
12. when that happens, it is time to throw away the analyses and just believe what this team now believes and knows. they can win every remaining game, starting with the no 4 boston college team this saturday.
it is time to start believing with them and just yell go irish!!!

Pleased to read your reaction to the 48 yard field goal. I was in the student section in 1969 when Scott Hempel hit the crossbar almost dead centre on a 49 yard attempt with the game tied 14-14 late in the 4th quarter against USC. It bounced back, the game stayed tied, and we lost to USC in each of the next 3 seasons and I graduated without us having beaten USC while I was a student.

“6. sure, we did not see what the offense could do yet since it would have been stupid to give boston college a preview of what they are going to be seeing when the d was winning the game.”

Are you serious? This is Weis’ 3rd season There isn’t exactly a lack of film of what the ND offense does with him at the helm. Trying to spin ND’s poor offensive performance as Weis’ planning ahead a week for BC when he had an 0-5 team on the road is ridiculous.

“the walls of the bush/carroll/usc gate coverup have come tumbling down. it is not only the ncaa asking qusetions, but the fbi, and the rattlesnakes over at usc are starting to bite one.
another.”

What is your obsession with USC and the Bush drama? it borders on lunacy. I’m not a supporter of what Bush did but the NCAA will handle it. We have bigger problems in South Bend then worrying about something we have no control over out in LA.

“10. we will take some of the credit for that panic over at usc and it could not happen to a more deserving bunch.”

WHAT?!?! We(ND) will take credit for the panic at USC? Are you joking me? Please tell me you are. Nothing Notre Dame has done on the field this year should give USC ANY reason to panic. I doubt there is even much panic in USC right now, even with Booty hurt they are just going to slot in another Parade All-American in Snachez. Oh no! PANIC! And then for you to say ND can take credit? Give me a break. You really can’t be that diluted.

1. our reference to we taking some of the credit fot the panic at usc was to myself and my friends, not to notre dame as an institution.

2. having lived out here in los angeles for many years and developed an understanding of the many areas of human enterprise out in this city of the angeles which have been infected by certain forces of evil at usc( there are some fine people associated with usc who, like us,would like to drive the cancers out of usc, including the football program)which have threatened the quality of the lives of the citizens of our fair city of the angels, we have been collecting evidence and whacking away at the usc mafia and scoring for years.

3. with respect to your other comments, considering the source, we thank you for the complement and remind you that nothing that notre dame has become would have been possible without what most people out there considered
impossible and insane.
4. apparently, you have never taken on any real missions impossible and succeeded against all odds and expectations, as we have, and perhaps you never will.
5. to answer your directive to us about shutting up, we are sorry if this answer upsets you. however, the answer is NO.

1. if you bothered to attend the pep rally at notre dame, either in person or remotely, you would have noticed quite a number of people whom you would label insane, including minnesota supreme court justice alan page and the rocket and everyone who was there.
2. there is not a friendly golf or tennis match going on this saturday at your country club with boston college.
3. there is going to be a street fight, just the way that boston college likes to play the game.

4. when notre dame wins this game and wins out this season, you are welcome to the celebrations. however, forget about taking any credit for the victories.
5. we do not know who you are or what your background is since you do not have the guts to come out from behind your phony internet id. 6.however, we do know that we never want you on our side in any of the battles in life, either on the football field or in any other area of life.

have a fine evening and a fine weekend while the rest of us enjoy our insanity and the wins that go with that specisl quality and a lot of very hard work,

Oh so you and your friends have created panic at USC? Right. Good work……………

The USC mafia? USC is a cancer? USC is evil? Come on. These comments are asinine. USC is a rival of Notre Dame. We get it, but you have taken it to some paranoid delusional level of hate. Every program has mistakes and missteps…even Notre Dame. Quit with the ridiculous rhetoric.

No. You shouldn’t be thanking me. To give credit to people who were thought to be insane for ND’s rise is absurd. ND’s rise is a credit to those leaders who were sane, practical, and level headed.

You act as though you are on some “impossible” mission from God by rooting for Notre Dame and trying to take down the “evil” USC. You aren’t.

Ha. Yeah I’ve never been to Notre Dame ever. Never been to a pep rally. Hell I don’t even know where South Bend is…….except for the fact that I just got back from the BC game…… you kidding me? Alan Page and Raghib are considered “insane”? Those people by and large at the pep rally are not insane, unless of course raving lunatics like you are there spouting your paranoid rhetoric.

Yeah good thing Weis held back the offense against UCLA so they could beat BC right?………………

Why the hell would I ever take credit for a ND victory? I wasn’t at practice, on the field or in the locker room. We are fans. We revel in victories, not take credit for them. The only fans that take credit for victories are those who have either lost all sense of reality or have nothing else going on in their lives.

Well my background is my name is Nick and I am from the Quad Cities. There really isn’t anything “phony” about my id. It literally tells my name and location.

Sir, I bleed gold and blue but it’s comments like yours that you constantly post here and actually believe that make all other Notre Dame fans look bad. Please stop. You are hurting the entire fan base.